Mshengu wrote:I wonder if Sean Kelly would commentate on his own. He seems to comment only when Hammond requests him to. He hardly takes the initiative to comment. Certainly they shouldn't be paired with Kirby. Or Sean wouldn't talk at ALL

Sean is generally a man of few words for sure. But his job is to offer analysis rather than describe the action. I think he does this better than any other English speaking commentator.

I always wonder what runs through Kelly's head when Harmon goes off on his doping rants. He always falls silent. That said, Harmon does seem to direct most of his doping anger at non-anglophones. Why doesn't anyone hate Leipheimer for failing a test?

180mmCrank wrote:Sean is generally a man of few words for sure. But his job is to offer analysis rather than describe the action. I think he does this better than any other English speaking commentator.

T

Sean knows economy he says things like "difficulty" when a guy is getting shelled or completely blows. He really knows the game and it shows from the overall outcome of the broadcast. I watched 4 or so stages on VS instead of Eurosport and I almost turned it off.

Kelly made an awesome tour even better. The ezzholes that kept up turning off the links due to copy write violations should be force fed rotten cabbage. Thank you Sean and ES for great day to day of the tour.

I,ve just watched the Cycling 2012: Olympic Course Guide on Eurosport with David Harmon and Rob Hayles. Firstly, Harmon was not wearing a helmet while riding alongside Rob Hayles. Secondly, why do we have to watch a man who cycles for a hobby, has no journalistic experience and wangled his way on to Eurosport "by accident" , tell us about the Olympic Road Course and how the teams may ride it ?

No doubt he will be Mr Olympics all next summer, again dominating the commentary alongside his PROFESSIONAL CYCLIST CO-COMMENTATOR.

Mr Harmon I have nothing against you if you would take a back seat and let the Professional do 80% of the Cycling Commentary.

Cycle Chic wrote:I,ve just watched the Cycling 2012: Olympic Course Guide on Eurosport with David Harmon and Rob Hayles. Firstly, Harmon was not wearing a helmet while riding alongside Rob Hayles. Secondly, why do we have to watch a man who cycles for a hobby, has no journalistic experience and wangled his way on to Eurosport "by accident" , tell us about the Olympic Road Course and how the teams may ride it ?

No doubt he will be Mr Olympics all next summer, again dominating the commentary alongside his PROFESSIONAL CYCLIST CO-COMMENTATOR.

Mr Harmon I have nothing against you if you would take a back seat and let the Professional do 80% of the Cycling Commentary.

Oh boohoo, I've seen so many professional cyclists train without their helmets on like Van den Broeck and Philippe Gilbert...

Ryo Hazuki wrote:horrible. boonen just the same guy as years before and this course is too hard for him. that's why he rode like a coward there were at least 3 guys stronger than boonen today and none of them won: sagan, ballan, pozzato

The Hitch wrote:Goss will woop boonens candy a[color="Black"]ss[/color] in a sprint he cares about, any day of the week

Cycle Chic wrote:I,ve just watched the Cycling 2012: Olympic Course Guide on Eurosport with David Harmon and Rob Hayles. Firstly, Harmon was not wearing a helmet while riding alongside Rob Hayles. Secondly, why do we have to watch a man who cycles for a hobby, has no journalistic experience and wangled his way on to Eurosport "by accident" , tell us about the Olympic Road Course and how the teams may ride it ?

No doubt he will be Mr Olympics all next summer, again dominating the commentary alongside his PROFESSIONAL CYCLIST CO-COMMENTATOR.

Mr Harmon I have nothing against you if you would take a back seat and let the Professional do 80% of the Cycling Commentary.

The point of the professional is that they CAN'T do 80% of the commentary. They're there to add analysis of what is happening, because it's the play-by-play man's job to tell us what is happening.

Séan Kelly's job is not to tell us what's happening in the sprint at the end of the stage. It's too fast for his lengthy expositions. He's there to tell us why what happened happened, after the fact, or to use his expertise to tell us what he thinks will happen before it happens. It's not his job to tell us what is happening at that present moment.

Cycle Chic wrote:I,ve just watched the Cycling 2012: Olympic Course Guide on Eurosport with David Harmon and Rob Hayles. Firstly, Harmon was not wearing a helmet while riding alongside Rob Hayles. Secondly, why do we have to watch a man who cycles for a hobby, has no journalistic experience and wangled his way on to Eurosport "by accident" , tell us about the Olympic Road Course and how the teams may ride it ?

No doubt he will be Mr Olympics all next summer, again dominating the commentary alongside his PROFESSIONAL CYCLIST CO-COMMENTATOR.

Mr Harmon I have nothing against you if you would take a back seat and let the Professional do 80% of the Cycling Commentary.

i take it there has been racing in your career?Yes, I did my first MTB race as an independent rider and a guy called Kerry Rochester approached me afterwards and asked me to join the Epping Forest MTB Club

what led you to commentary - do you have a background in this, such as commentating on live events?I starting commentating purely by chance. I used to make motor sports programmes for a London based company whose boss worked each year as a commentator at the Le Mans 24 race. Unfortunately at the time, although I guess rather fortunately now, he was also the sort of man who could never turn a job down, whatever it was. When we arrived at Le Mans he just shoved me in the commentary booth and said; 'get on with it'. I had no preparation done and was all by myself but I commentated for 17 hours out of the 24, and the next year they asked me back.

Coming back to cycling was another piece of happy chance, I sent a showreel of my motor racing commentaries to Eurosport but Duffers noticed I'd been a bikie and hauled me in to have a go. We got on like a house on fire, I think a shared passion for driving minis and good single malt helped.

Just for the record, of your 89 posts, 42 are complaining about Eurosport's coverage in some way, shape or form. 3 of the 7 threads you've started are complaining about Eurosport's coverage.

We've heard plenty about what you don't like about it, what DO you like about it? Who do you think would be a better commentary team? How would you like them to cover the sport, catering for both the casual and the dedicated fan?

and to all the "you try finding a pro-cyclist who is available to do the job" replies...

Eurosport dont seem to have any trouble finding co-commentators for all the races so that doesnt add up.

Why dont they ask a local club racer to commentate ? he has more experience / knowledge than Harmon has. I am sure viewers would rather listen to a national racer than Harmon guessing and repeating riders names in the breakaway - which he repeats from info he is being fed.

I remember listening to David Vine commentating on the Skiing and it was also an insult - the guy had never even put on a pair of skis. He finally got ousted and we got an ex-pro Martin Bell, who now hosts Ski Sunday - AND HAD NO FORMAL PROFESSIONAL COMMENTATING EXPERIENCE. Its not rocket science !!

Libertine Seguros wrote:Just for the record, of your 89 posts, 42 are complaining about Eurosport's coverage in some way, shape or form. 3 of the 7 threads you've started are complaining about Eurosport's coverage.

We've heard plenty about what you don't like about it, what DO you like about it? Who do you think would be a better commentary team? How would you like them to cover the sport, catering for both the casual and the dedicated fan?

I dont need your stats thanks about my Eurosport grouse.

I know Mr harmon reads these complaints so I hope he realises he isnt fooling anyone !

Cycle Chic wrote:and to all the "you try finding a pro-cyclist who is available to do the job" replies...

Eurosport dont seem to have any trouble finding co-commentators for all the races so that doesnt add up.

Why dont they ask a local club racer to commentate ? he has more experience / knowledge than Harmon has. I am sure viewers would rather listen to a national racer than Harmon guessing and repeating riders names in the breakaway - which he repeats from info he is being fed.

I remember listening to David Vine commentating on the Skiing and it was also an insult - the guy had never even put on a pair of skis. He finally got ousted and we got an ex-pro Martin Bell, who now hosts Ski Sunday - AND HAD NO FORMAL PROFESSIONAL COMMENTATING EXPERIENCE. Its not rocket science !!

Are you aware your arguments are all over the place?

You think commentators should have professional commentating experience, but that professional commentating experience is irrelevant. You think cyclists can commentate because it's not rocket science, but commentators can't talk about cycling because apparently it is rocket science.

Incidentally, you have no professional commentating experience, and following the logic from the first part of your last post (the 2nd part, of course, argues the opposite), that means you are not entitled to talk about commentating.

You think commentators should have professional commentating experience, but that professional commentating experience is irrelevant. You think cyclists can commentate because it's not rocket science, but commentators can't talk about cycling because apparently it is rocket science.

Incidentally, you have no professional commentating experience, and following the logic from the first part of your last post (the 2nd part, of course, argues the opposite), that means you are not entitled to talk about commentating.

Seriously, just stop.

What I am stating is - you dont need experience to be a commentator but you do need professional experience in the sport you are commentating on. I gave Martin bell as an example of that....Sean kelly, Magnus backstedt, Brian Smith, they have all picked it up easily enough.

And...I do have commentating experience on BBC Grandstand - I was a professional snowboarder and I had no problem commentating on a race alongside another ex-athlete.